Updated – Upgrade A Netgear AC1450 Router to AC1750 (R6300V2)

The best opportunities are not always obvious opportunities. Sometimes you have to put together pieces that appeared in different places at different times. Having a memory for minutia is helpful. Today’s lesson in making your own good fortune comes courtesy of Netgear and a refurbished router model it offers, the AC1450. For reasons not known to me, Netgear decided to offer one router model under two different model numbers. They differ only in the firmware that controls router operations. One model, the AC1450, was initially offered only by Costco. The other model, the R6300 V2 / AC1750 is offered everywhere else.

The firmware that controls the R6300 V2 is reliable firmware. Reviews online give it generally positive remarks. Like all routers, some people say it works great and some say it didn’t work well for them. Personally, I’ve owned six routers over the years and all have worked well. Four were refurbished Netgear routers, one was a new Asus router, and one long ago was a small TwoWire router. (I also own a couple of TP-Link travel routers. One is used to turn my Slingbox into a wireless client. The other is used when traveling. They’re amazing little devices.)

Some people have different and unhappy stories concerning router reliability. Sometimes a firmware upgrade goes bad. Sometimes the router is a lemon. Sometimes the user might have made a mistake in the setup. Buying a new router always makes me a little nervous. Doing business with a store that has a good return policy is essential.

While the R6300 V2 is considered to be pretty good, the AC1450 was given much lower marks by reviewers on sales sites. Many concluded that the firmware on the AC1450 was faulty in some respects and it made the router unreliable. Eventually, Netgear decided to mass market a factory refurbished version of the AC1450. Current sale prices for a refurbished AC1450 range from $65 to $70. This compares to a new R6300 V2, which sells for $150 to $175.

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[Update 6-1-2015: According to a couple of comments below, Netgear firmware updates for the converted R6300V2 will not apply. Upon testing that claim, I encountered no problem updating my R6300V2, converted from an AC1450, from 1.0.3.26_10.0.70 to 1.0.3.28_10.0.71, the current release. I downloaded the update file from Netgear and manually applied it. My router was not connected to the internet at the time of the update, so I can not make any assertions about the automatic update feature.

Originally, my converted R6300V2 had a 1 year old DD-WRT Kong release installed, numbered 24345M. The router was serving as a 5 GHz client bridge. To test, I first loaded Netgear firmware 1.0.3.26._10.0.70, converting the router back to a stock R6300V2. I manually loaded the updated firmware, 1.0.3.28_10.0.71 and it was accepted with no complaints. I plan to put a newer DD-WRT release on it later and return it to bridge duties. DD-WRT allows me to use the 2.4 GHz radio as a 2nd SSID while Netgear does not when the router is used as a client bridge.

Thus, in spite of some worries expressed here earlier, and subsequently removed, there appears to be no problem with a stock firmware upgrade to a newer release. If anyone has a different experience, please report it in the comments.

Also, since writing this article last year, DD-WRT has added the AC1450 to its directory of supported routers at the ‘beta’ site, just in case you wish to go that route. Last year, converting to DD-WRT directly from the AC1450 was new and largely untested.

DD-WRT went through a bad patch of of files a few months ago. They were reported as unreliable and of mixed quality. This problem has largely gone away, although, as always when it comes to DD-WRT, you MUST first investigate the quality of the release before you upgrade your router firmware.

Tomato Shibby will also load onto a converted R6300V2 – at least it worked for me. Unfortunately, I had to send that router back because of a faulty 5 GHz radio. I don’t know of an AC1450 specific release from Tomato Shibby. The 5 GHz radio was also faulty with both DD-WRT and R6300V2 firmware. The first conversion AC1450 / R6300V2 I purchased is still working flawlessly.

Some anecdotal reports say it’s best to install Tomato Shibby from Netgear firmware. Versions of DD-WRT released within the past year allow you to return to stock Netgear firmware just by uploading it. (Just to be safe, perform a factory reset to clear NVRAM before re-loading Netgear firmware. Otherwise, you might have problems.) That’s how I did it. I do not know if routers from other manufacturers are this flexible.

I won’t provide conversion instructions for DD-WRT because there’s too many ways to mess up and I don’t want to be blamed if you brick your router.

Overall, never buy any router from anyone unless you can conveniently return it for being faulty. Don’t be afraid to return it. Router companies have no problem selling you something that slipped past the QC department or advertising amazing capabilities that only appear in a controlled lab setting. However, before returning it, make sure the problems have nothing to do with a faulty configuration or excessive wireless congestion from the neighbors that a little tinkering will remedy.

Anyone with more information about the Netgear firmware issue … please reply in the comments. That being said, it worked for me.]

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Many people, including me, decided to purchase a refurbished AC1450 for the purpose of converting it into a functioning R6300 V2. (DD-WRT can also be loaded on both models. I have DD-WRT on two other Netgear routers I own; a WNDR3400 V1 and a R6300 V1). At some point I may put DD-WRT on the R6300 V2, but not today. I want to play with the stock firmware and eventually turn it into an ac level media bridge that’s connected to my Netgear R6300 V1.

Why Would I Want To Convert One?

Here’s a brief list of fairly good reasons to consider buying a refurbished AC1450 and converting it into a R6300 V2 / AC 1750;

A refurbished AC1450 costs as much as $100 less than a new, stock R6300 V2

User review sites say a R6300 V2 is more reliable than an AC1450 and reasonably reliable overall

An AC1450 has a 2.4GHz speed of 450 Mbits/second and a 5GHz speed of 975 Mbits/second. A R6300 V2 has the same 2.4GHz speed but 5GHz tops out at 1300 Mbits/second

Buy two, convert them, and turn one into a 5GHz media bridge. This feature is built into the Netgear firmware on its top tier routers.

Bragging rights.

[Update 9-29-2014: The refurbished AC1450 appears to be selling out fast on the entire internet. By the time you read this it may be unavailable unless Netgear restocks vendors.]

So How Do I Know They’re The Same Hardware?

The FCC uses an identification number to identify routers. The FCC ID for both the AC1450 and the R6300 V2 is PY313200227. The skeptical might say “So what. Got anything else?”

Why, yes I do.

A lot of the information the FCC requires manufacturers to provide becomes public information. A few screen prints from the FCC web site follow.

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Prompting for details via FCC ID

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The details that follow.

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The smoking gun

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How Do I Get Started?

Your overall objective is to tell the router via telnet that it is not really an AC1450. It’s a R6300 V2 and, thanks to your efforts, it has the board ID to prove it.

You first need to download a few things. These include a program called telnetenable.exe, the user guide for a R6300 V2, and the most current firmware for a R6300 V2.

Then you need to enable telnet on your PC via Add Windows Features.

You need to know the MAC address of the AC1450. This comes from a label on the bottom of the router. Write it down.

You need to access your PC with Administrator privileges (run as Administrator).

Once you’re ready to begin, you need to disconnect from your home network. Otherwise, you might accidentally mess up your main home router. Turn off the laptop wifi. Connect the laptop to a LAN port (NOT the WAN port) on the AC1450 via a wired connection.

Next you turn on the AC1450, enter a few command to tell your router it’s really a R6300 V2, upload the new firmware, then restart your router. If successful, you will boot into a R6300 V2.

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Download telnetenable.exe from MyOpenRouter.com Unzip the file. Make note of the folder in which it was unzipped. You will need to navigate there while in the Command Window. Telnet can only be run from a command prompt. Telnetenable.exe is used to open the front door into the router so telnet can finish the job.

[Update September 26, 2015: Reader Judd offered the following comment below. It may or may not apply to you. I have not tried it. The originally described method worked twice for me, but things change:

I bought my AC1450 at Costco in the 2014 time frame. Worked OK but would need occasional reboots. Netgear finally came out with a firmware update which I loaded. After loading I had problems with the router communicating and, when I saw your article while searching for an answer to my problem, thought I would try upgrading mine to R6300v2. I couldn’t get TelnetEnable.exe to work however. So, after more research, I found an article on wiki.openwrt.org that told me:

“New TelnetEnable on Windows

The old Netgear Windows telnetEnable.exe sends probe packets to the router’s TCP port 23. Thus, it is not compatible with firmware and routers Netgear introduced after early 2014, which require UDP port 23.

For those new devices you will need a patched version of telnetenable which supports UDP. You can find it here (github.com)

Keep in mind that the newer routers no longer use Gearguy/Geardog as username and password. You will need to provide your web interface login details. Also, don’t forget to convert your MAC address to uppercase letters, and remove any colons.”

After following those instructions, your upgrade steps worked flawlessly and I now have an R6300v2. Great article and thank you!!]

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[Update December 3, 2015: Reader Geekshriek commented below:

“I too was having issues with trying to get telnet to work. I eventually got it to work after trying what Ben said. I downgraded the firmware to “AC1450_V1.0.0.6_1.0.3” and telnet went through without a problem.”

Thanks. Great insight. However, another comment noted problems with this solution. Well, nothing ventured …. It costs nothing to try.]

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If you choose to load DD-WRT later on, this is the web site to locate a current version for Netgear routers. DD-WRT can be a little touchy to load initially. Many versions require you to flash with a smaller initial version before loading the full firmware. You should also research the version you plan to load to make sure it is stable. Occasionally, one with problems sneaks through. You might be better off with a previous version.

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Download the R6300 V2 User Manual, current firmware, and anything else of interest from the Netgear support page.

Sign in as an Administrator. Make sure your PC has no wifi connection to the main network. Connect the PC to a LAN port on the AC4150 (NOT the WAN port). Turn on the AC1450 and wait for it warm up.

Open a Command window via run as Administrator. Navigate to where telnetenable.exe is stored and execute it using a specific command. Replace the MAC address below with the MAC address of the router. Use all capital letters and no punctuation. I can only assume the name at the end is the user id and password to the router’s firmware. (The MAC address below is just a made up number for illustration purposes) The telnetenable zip file includes a document with an example and some useful information.

telnetEnable.exe 192.168.1.1 000FB5A2BE26 Gearguy Geardog

press ENTER

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Begin telnet.

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Tell the AC1450 it has been reborn as a R6300 V2 by changing the board id. Type

burnboardid U12H240T00_NETGEAR

press ENTER

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Hopefully, you get this response. If you typed in the wrong number, do it again. It’s supposed to be a forgiving process. I got it right the first time but others elsewhere have written it’s not do or die.

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Powercycle your router after you get the OK.

Now you’re in the home stretch. Unzip the file with the Netgear firmware. Read any supporting documentation included. Load the R6300 V2 firmware following all instructions provided in the zipfile. A factory reset might be a good idea if it had been configured prior to installing R600V2 firmware. Restart the router using the power button after the firmware has loaded and begin your configuration. If the router balks at accepting the firmware, give it a restart before proceeding.

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Use your browser and type the address 192.168.1.1. Tell this screen you wish to connect to the internet later. The firmware provides a wizard that makes the internet connection easy. Information on how to access it is in the User Guide along with all other set up information that is relevant to your network.

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Load the firmware for the R6300 V2, following the instructions included in the zipfile. Don’t bother the router during the upload. You might brick it.

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After a restart, you will see this initial screen. Note the upper left corner where the router identifies itself as a R6300 V2.

Done.

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Disconnect the router from your laptop unless you plan to use it complete the router setup. Connect the internet to the WAN port on the router. You’ll need a wired connection to the router to complete the initial setup. Your cable modem might need to cycle off and on to sync up with the new router. The User Guide will tell you how to complete the connection to the internet using the setup wizard. Complete the configuration to meet your needs.

As a suggestion, during the configuration, consider turning OFF uPnP (plug and play) on your router. Any ports left open because a connected device asked for them to be open is just an invitation to Chinese hackers who use port sniffers. Even a little old lady from Pasadena with an internet connection is a target for these people. Netgear appears to leave them open by default. I turned off uPnP when I saw Chinese hackers (I looked up the IP addresses they used) sniffing at port 22 on my QNAP drive via Netgear router logs. They didn’t get in, but I still tightened thing up. (DD-WRT leaves uPnP off by default.)

Hopefully, it will work well for you.

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I’m a novice but I like expanding my horizons. I bought one ac1450 and converted it no problem. liked it so much I bought another.and now I can’t get the “telnetEnable” to work
.
When I type c:\users\……\desktop\telnetEnable.exe it gives:

oops, totally missed the step of typing “telnet 192.168.1.1” after the prompt
..only cost me 6 hrs….told you I was a novice! lol ..but victory is mine! So…could someone please tell me why this router is so awesome with the new firmware and how should i use it differently than my old linksys? lol

There’s another person with instructions on how to do the conversion with a MAC. Between the two of you, Apple is probably covered pretty well. I have no Mac experience so I can’t speak to either reference. Feedback from others is welcome.

I did the burnboardid U12H240T00_NETGEAR verbatim to what you listed here and got a positive confirmation. When i downloaded latest firmware for r6300v3 (v1.0.3.8_1.0.60), it tells me: This firmware file is incorrect! Please get the firmware file again and make sure it is the correct firmware for this product. I’ve redownloaded twice. Any advice would be helpful.

After changing the id, power cycle the router (turn it off and on). When it comes back to life, it will accept the new software, although it may complain about a date issue. Just go with it. After the new firmware loads, you should be ready. Just to be on the safe side, reset the router by either clearing all the settings via the software or by pressing the reset button back for a few seconds.

I go to my routerlogin.net and try to update the firmware (V1.0.3.22_10.0.67) but it says none is available but when I check the website it says 1.0.3.8 is available for this. I noticed it says R6300v3 now instead of R6300v2. Will this firmware work and are the benefits worth upgrading? My router works now but I don’t want to brick anything. Has Netgear figured out this AC1450 upgrade to AC1750 and is trying to stop it? Thanks!

Sorry to disappoint, but I have no idea. I really don’t know what screens you went to. I just checked and they look the same to me. I converted another AC1450 a couple of weeks ago and had no issues, except for the fact the router was a lemon in certain respects and I sent it back to Amazon for a refund. I’m not a Netgear expert. I strongly doubt Netgear is angry about people doing conversions since the AC1450 out of the box with standard firmware has a troubled reputation and the refurb price is so cheap. If I were to guess, they’re happy this article, and others like it, are available and so popular. Good luck.

I used the GUI to check for updates and this is what was returned (My firmware is V1.0.3.8_1.0.60):
A new version has been found. Do You want to upgrade to the new version now?
Current GUI Language Version: 1.0.3.8_2.1.33.8
New GUI Language Version: 1.0.3.22_2.1.33.8
Current Firmware Version 1.0.3.8
New Firmware Version 1.0.3.22_10.0.67
Release Notes:
1. [Enhancement] Enhances the IPv6 interoperability.
2. [Enhancement] Upgrades the NTFS driver.
3. [Bug Fix] Fixes the issue in which the router cannot detect an IP conflict when it changes from AP mode to router mode.
4. [Bug Fix] Fixes the issue in which the LAN PC Windows update fails when the router is in PPPoE mode and a USB storage device is connected to it.
5. [Bug Fix] Fixes the issue in which pressing the WPS button drops the existing connection.

After I checked, I did NOT upgrade. I logged back into my router and got a message/link at the top of the screen saying, “A router firmware upgrade is available.”. I have not upgraded yet.

I have two AC1450 that I successfully flashed to the R6300v2. In fact, today I was able to use the internal Netgear Genie login to upgrade both to the latest firmware. I finally enabled IPV6 and it’s also working perfectly.

My only issue is signal strength. We live in a small apartment and I can’t get full coverage from the (flashed) R6300v2. It doesn’t really make sense. I have the second one setup as a bridge but the stock firmware doesn’t allow for bridge/repeater mode simultaneously. I’m curious of two things: 1) has anyone else had issues with signal coverage in a small, open area and 2) has anyone flashed Shibby’s Tomato firmware from the (flashed) R6300v2? I read on DD-WRT that it’s better not to have upgraded to the R6300v2 but I have no real desire to undo that. I’ve also had issues in the past with DD-WRT stability, function and speed so I’d rather go with Tomato to try to use the bridge/repeater mode. If anyone has thoughts on this, I’d love to hear (even if it’s just ideas on how to deal with low wifi coverage…then I wouldn’t need alternate firmware!).

BTW, huge thanks for this guide and the research behind it. I had no issues doing the upgrade and was really happy about it! Great work.

This is a common problem. It might be a configuration issue. It might be a router issue. It might be a congestion issue. Trial and error testing and the process of elimination can help sort it out. Sorry to say, routers aren’t like microwave ovens when it comes to set-up and use.

If you live in an area with a multitude of wi-fi networks, you might be fighting with your neighbors over the same channel. Change channels and see if that helps. Try double bonding the channels for a wider signal path, if possible. Or, since you have two routers, switch up the main one and the bridge. If your coverage is better, then one might be a lemon. 5GHz has a much smaller range than 2.4GHz and walls matter. Google it for more info.

DD-WRT and Tomato Shibby both provide actual (or theoretical) speeds at both frequencies. You can see if they are anywhere close to advertised. Nobody gets actual advertised speeds. Google actual vs advertised router speeds for more info about that. DD-WRT is always a dice throw. I upgraded from a 1 year old Kong release to a fairly recent ‘beta’ (they’re all beta releases) and my 2.4GHz speeds almost tripled on my main router (R6300V1). 5Ghz was unchanged.

I bought another AC1450 and upgraded it recently. It was a lemon and I returned it to Amazon. Shibby and DD-WRT both showed me that XMIT was half the speed of RCV (or vice versa — I can’t remember) and the slow one was only a small fraction of theoretical maximum.

Does anyone know how to revert back to AC1450 after converting to AC1750? I am having problems on 2.4 Ghz band of AC1750 newest firmware and would like to return the router. I need to revert back to 1450 and don’t know how.

I haven’t tried it myself but found some instructions on how to revert on some forums regarding the AC1450 & DD-WRT. Look for a post about halfway down the page by Greygeek with these devilish (there aren’t post numbers that I can find):Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 9:54 Post subject: Build 24010 for Netgear AC1450 – no 2.4GHz banban.http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=895436#895436

So look for that post & start reading there. With the info from the previous poster with the original burnboardid, you can probably do it. There may be additional info later in that thread if you’re willing to dig a bit. Hope that helps. Good luck.

I use DD-WRT on a couple of routers for specific purposes, but I don’t know all of its features. The DD-WRT wiki offers a lot of basic info and the DD-WRT forum provide a lot of information about the quality of each build as it comes out. The FTP beta site is where to download them. All releases are called ‘beta’. Newer ones are looking better than they were a few months ago, but each is a dice throw. Myopenrouter also offers DD-WRT for netgear routers. I assume they are better tested since the ones they offer don’t change very often. DD-WRT has some kind of hotspot capability, but I don’t use it so I don’t know it’s capabilities. Look at the wiki.

Personally I am satisfied with the upgraded r6300v2 firmware. But in your opinion, would it be better to revert to stock ac 1450 firmware and then switch to ddwrt OR should I stick with the r6300v2 firmware? Everything is working fine at the moment, and getting the above mentioned feature is the only reason I would consider switching over to dd-wrt.

You can install DD-WRT without reverting back to the AC1450. Just treat it as a R6300V2. That’s what I did and it worked fine. Be sure you understand how to convert it properly, otherwise you could easily brick it.

Did the procedure awhile back and everything worked as advertised. Recently netgear is saying this:

“A new firmware version is available”

I click through and get this information:
——————————————————
Current Firmware Version 1.0.3.8
New Firmware Version 1.0.3.28_10.0.71
Release Notes
1. [Enhancement] Enhances the IPv6 interoperability.
2. [Enhancement] Upgrades the NTFS driver.
3. [Bug Fix] Fixes the issue in which the router cannot detect an IP conflict when it changes from AP mode to router mode.
4. [Bug Fix] Fixes the issue in which the LAN PC Windows update fails when the router is in PPPoE mode and a USB storage device is connected to it.
5. [Bug Fix] Fixes the issue in which pressing the WPS button drops the existing connection.
6. [Enhancement] Improves the auto channel selection algorithm.
7. [Bug Fix] Fixes security vulnerability issue.
————————————————–

However, when it tries to update, it gives “firmware invalid” and aborts.

I decided at that point to try the DD-WRT and it aborts the same way with ‘firmware invalid’.

Do you know if there is a work-around or does the change of the board ID screw us for further updates? At this point after researching the issue, it doesn’t sound like even a “revert” to 1450 fixes this problem.

I don’t know what’s going on with your router. I tried the update by uploading the file directly and had no issues. DD-WRT works fine for me. Try resetting the router by putting a pin in the back hole for a few seconds. Read the 6-1-2015 update above.

Did all that and more. I wasn’t expecting miracles when I posted…half question and half fyi. My solution is to replace the gear with a nighthawk in the next month or so. (Set one of those up for a friend, and they are quite the nice gear…with prices dropping decently especially on the “refurb” side. (no need to change from one type of router to another with burnboardid and such. -heh.) I do appreciate your site, info and help.

The refurb AC1450 is a great bargain if, in my opinion, reconfigured into an R6300V2 or updated with alternate firmware. Sales sites offer some unfortunate customer comments regarding the stock AC1450. The R7000 is offering some refurbs now, but at higher cost than the refurb AC1450. The R7000 has some advanced features over the R6300V2, but the same 5GHz AC speeds (1300mbps). It provides 600 mbps at 2.4Ghz, which is faster than most laptops and tablets can, or ever could, receive.

Personally, I think router technology has peaked for the time being. AC is only now being used a bit more and many homes still use 2.4 GHz exclusively. I only just recently bought a tablet that can understand AC. Many others are more advanced than me, but the average user has not yet caught up with AC, I believe.

Personally, I think UTM (Unified Threat Management) is coming of age, although the technology is still in its infancy at the consumer level. I am currently planning a home build for either a Sophos UTM or a PFSense UTM. My main router will be a wireless access point only when the build is complete.

The R7000 is nice, but it won’t change your life compared to the AC1450 conversion you currently own.

Just tried again for S/n/G’s and no joy. Still “file is invalid” as the response. Tried to download and apply manually, and still, ‘file is invalid”. SO, as Carl indicates above, my bet is that I DO have a lemon. Also for Carl, I know the R7000 won’t be much “different” than my AC1450, the nighthawk WILL allow me to keep up with firmware updates, so all good. 🙂

Thanks for the input. It took me a while to get around to testing it myself. I was happy to see it worked for me. It would be really weird for Netgear to back channel the AC1450 and then, cleverly, not support it when people do what – wink wink nod nod – everyone is else doing.

Hey I tried them all I have a ac1450 and as of june 1st 2015 I think r6300v2 firmware is going to work best for you I really want to use tomato or pretty ass advanced tomato but it’s just not gonna run as smooth and I think you lose things like beamforming dd-wrt was ok I would get 5ghz going down every once in a while. I’m just running stock netgear latest r6300v2 firmware I get the fastest speeds on it.

Asus merlin firmware for the r6300v2. I haven’t installed it yet cause it was posted up on a chinese website. Supposedly the developer has another file to bring it back to netgear firmware. I don’t have hardware to fix a brick in case something goes wrong. Maybe somebody else could give it a shot and report back…

We’re on the same page. I deleted his links. If Merlin actually wrote that software, it would be big news. At the very least, he would probably mention it on his site. If he manages to create a Netgear version, I’ll write about it above next to the DD-WRT and Tomato Shibby information.

Merlin didn’t write it, but development started with the r7000 router on linksysinfo.org forums by a dev xvortex. The r6300v2 build was made by chazikai24. The source for the r6300v2 can be found here. It’s a beta 1.1 release.

Thanks for the additional info. I don’t want links to software in here unless it’s to a commonly known site. I’ll write about it if it gets more traction among users.

I saw a R7000 Merlin release on MyOpenRouter.com. No R6300V2 version. Someone can look over there if they want to try it out. I have no experience with Merlin’s software, but lots of people rave about it on the Asus routers it works on. As always, good luck if you try it.

I removed the link because it pointed to a release candidate and the prior version didn’t specifically name the R6300. Also, OpenWRT made it difficult to even find the proper download or even let me know if a version is available for the R6300. Granted, these alternate firmwares are all intended for adventurers and OpenWRT has been around a while so it’s probably OK. I don’t want someone yelling at me for pointing to a not too well documented program, giving it credibility in the process, and then finding out it didn’t work as expected. When OpenWRT makes their software easier to find and better documented, I will add it to the list above.

Thanks a lot for the clear instructions!
I was able to upgrade my router with no issues. The only thing I had to do was to “reboot” the router after running the burnboardid command.
Everything else worked like a charm!

I bought my AC1450 at Costco in the 2014 time frame. Worked OK but would need occasional reboots. Netgear finally came out with a firmware update which I loaded. After loading I had problems with the router communicating and, when I saw your article while searching for an answer to my problem, thought I would try upgrading mine to R6300v2. I couldn’t get TelnetEnable.exe to work however. So, after more research, I found an article on wiki.openwrt.org that told me:

“New TelnetEnable on Windows

The old Netgear Windows telnetEnable.exe sends probe packets to the router’s TCP port 23. Thus, it is not compatible with firmware and routers Netgear introduced after early 2014, which require UDP port 23.

For those new devices you will need a patched version of telnetenable which supports UDP. You can find it here (github.com)

Keep in mind that the newer routers no longer use Gearguy/Geardog as username and password. You will need to provide your web interface login details. Also, don’t forget to convert your MAC address to uppercase letters, and remove any colons.”

After following those instructions, your upgrade steps worked flawlessly and I now have an R6300v2. Great article and thank you!!

This is supposed to be the new telnetenable for windows. I have not used it. My last AC1450 conversion (I’ve done two) used the old version. Version 1 used the sign in method reported in the article. Version 2 is said to use the admin sign on in the router. Reader Judd noted this in a comment and I excerpted his comment in the article just in case others needed help. Like all computer hacks, you’ll have to be adventurous and persistent, plus accept a little risk that things might not work.

I have no idea why a change in telnetenable was implemented.

If you have problems, Tomato Shibby is an alternative. DD-WRT is another, although new versions come out sometimes more than one a week, so I can’t tell you which to try. The DD-WRT forum in the Broadcom section describe each release and people say if they encountered problems. As mentioned above, you can brick your router if you mess up, so I won’t try to provide installation instructions. I don’t want to be blamed if it doesn’t work. YouTube has Tomato Shibby instructions. DD-WRT install methods change often enough to not assume anything. The last I looked, and it could have changed since, the recent Kong versions of DD-WRT are easier to install and seem specific to Netgear models. I don’t have the link to his current site. There’s also myopenrouter.com for alternative firmware. None of the alternative firmwares require telnetenable.

I can Telnet to 192.168.1.1, but the screen only gives me a blinking cursor. I can enter the information provided (burnboardid, etc.) and the cursor moves as I type but characters are not displayed. When I hit enter nothing happens.

Assume this is a Windows issue, but does anyone have any ideas? Allegedly this new telnet exe works with 64bit Windows 7 machines. Thank you!

Someone who has completed the upgrade recently is needed here. Some comments here leave the impression that Netgear changed something somewhere in the process. This procedure worked twice for me over a several month period. Look over the article again and Google for different implementations of telnetenable. Also, note the id / password change others mentioned. Please leave a progress report when you get it working. Also, Tomato Shibby is a good alternative as is DDWRT, preferably a Kong version.

Check your Netgear AC1450 version number. I flashed mine back to the initial version “AC1450_V1.0.0.6_1.0.3” and had no issues with using telnet, upgraded to 6300v2 and flashed with Tomato Shibby 3.0. However, I’m having 2.4ghz wireless issues and now using Tomato Shibby 2.8 and it’s working great so far.

I too was having issues with trying to get telnet to work. I eventually got it to work after trying what Ben said. I downgraded the firmware to “AC1450_V1.0.0.6_1.0.3” and telnet went through without a problem. All is working great now! Thanks everyone

I too had the same problem with telnet on a unit I just bought a refurb AC1450 on Amazon. It would connect and no prompt at all. I tried both old and new telnetenable programs with all different kinds of passwords. I also was using a Windows 7 64bit system, but I tried the built in windows telnet and putty. Both had the same results, connected, but no prompt. I performed this whole procedure successfully last year on a different AC1450, so I’m very familiar with the process.

I even downgraded the firmware to AC1450_V1.0.0.6_1.0.3 with no change in the telnet results.

So beware that this whole procedure may not work on more recent AC1450’s at all.

Thank you. It’s beginning to look like the AC1450 is no longer the opportunity it once was. Netgear has other models available as refurbs that support alternate firmware.

Today, I’m using a small fanless mini itx pc I built as a pfSense router and my AC1450 upgrade is working as a wireless access point with stock firmware. It uses a Supermicro motherboard that comes with an Intel J1900 processor pre-installed. (if anyone decided to try building one, Gigabyte makes a J1900 motherboard that sales sites report as having a bios that’s a work in progress.) The pfSense router sits in the basement where the comcast line enters the house. I recently wired my house with cat6 ports on the first floor. All media outlets now have keystone plugs for varying purposes. Using existing holes made the wiring project much easier. The AC1450/R6300V2 upgraded router is plugged into one of the new ports upstairs.

I like pfSense. The router cost a little under $400 to build, but I gave it excess capacity in case the router idea didn’t work. I could have built it for a little less if I sized it differently. It will probably be the last router I ever buy, so to speak. I especially like the OpenVPN implementation. You can install multiple servers and assign users on an individual basis. I have each PC and android device configured as individual users (tun only. Android and tap don’t get along.)

I have one server for passthrough (tun interface) so I can browse securely using public wifi. I also have a server with a tap (bridge) interface. It allows me to securely connect to the home network using public wifi from anywhere. I can be at Starbucks and access my network just as if I were downstairs in an easy chair. It requires certificates, a user id of my choosing and two passwords. If I want, plain ordinary Microsoft remote desktop allows access to a PC without the need to port forward 3389 – OpenVPN gets me to the inside network. pfSense has some other benefits. I’m trying to figure out how to write about it. The pfSense site has pretty good documentation so I don’t know what I can add. pfSense also provides snort and pfBlockerNG for intrusion detection and protection.

Also, pfSense has an OpenVPN wizard that make building a tun (passthrough) interface into an exercise in button pressing. Clent export is also performed at the click of a button. Really slick.

I’m a skeleton key system administrator at work dealing with a mind blowing amount and array of different systems, OS’s, routers, firewalls, VPNs, etc.

I just need crap to work at home for the whole family without fiddling for hours on end like I already do at work. I wouldn’t build a router for home if you put a gun to my head and consider it a waste of time since there are plenty of decent appliances that will do it reliably and cheaply.

The Netgear AC1450 is a REALLY crappy router, but does AC at 5Ghz AWESOMELY cheap and effectively. The 2.4Ghz is completely unusable.

Agree that building a router is an effort and an expense. Snort false positives can upset family internet users quite a bit. I like the OpenVPN implementation of pfSense and I have the time and family support to navigate Snort issues. 2.4GHz on most routers is an issue. I get adequate performance from my 2.4GHz, but all refurbs differ. I sent one back for what looked like possible antenna problems. I just ordered a 5GHz card for a laptop. If it works OK I’ll order a 2nd for another one. If not, I’ll send it back. I also am mystified why major companies willingly sell items with questionable quality. Potentially taking advantage of consumer inexperience with technical issues makes it worse, in my opinion. Clarification of consumer concerns is difficult to come by from the companies.

Just wanted to add that I ran into the exact same problem. Installed initial fw but still no luck. I looked and couldn’t find a solution, so I gave up and installed dd-wrt instead. Shame as I really wanted an r6300v2.

Something changed along the way. This used to be a simple upgrade. Now, it’s hit or miss due to changes somewhere in the router infrastructure, I assume. I recently saw a refurb R6300V2, the real one, on sale at Amazon for a low price. It was from one of the alternate sites, not the main Amazon page for a refurbished R6300V2. Maybe it’s time to go for the real deal and ignore the AC1450. The stock AC1450 is rated poorly by sales sites when used as a stock AC1450.

To the good, some decent wireless routers in the same class (ac1750) appear to be more available at a lower price than about a year ago. Router companies appear to be pushing the ac-infinity models for a couple of hundred dollars and up. They probably make sense for people with many many wireless devices in concurrent use or those who have a big house and haven’t thought of using a wireless bridge to get the signal to another spot in it.

For years, I got along well with a wireless router and a 5GHz wireless bridge. I got good speeds, nice reliable throughput, and no complaints from family. I’ve never purchased a new, current, state of the art, wireless router. The only new router I ever bought was an Asus RT-N56U (N600) I purchased long ago after is was superseded by the RT-N66U. It still sits in a closet as an emergency spare. It worked well. Every other one was a refurb or one I built.

Currently, my main router is one I built … one based on pfSense using a micro-ITX board. It has an Intel J1900 processor in it. (Technically speaking, I guess it IS a state of the art router, but I built it, I didn’t buy it.) I wired the first floor of my house with cat6, replacing media and phone ports with keystone ports. YouTube videos taught me how. The router is in the basement next to where the wire enters the house. The converted AC1450 / R6300V2 is a wireless access point using stock firmware. It works very well. pfSense supports multiple OpenVPN servers simultaneously and configuring one is almost stupid simple, compared to DD-WRT and other routers that support OpenVPN. One is tun for passthrough. The other is tap for remote secure access to the home network, to which I also use TeamViewer for remote desktop access but only over the local lan – TeamViewer is inaccessible from outside the home network. OpenVPN / tap gets me into the local network; TeamViewer gives me remote desktop access. If you don’t know my DDNS oriented URL, have the proper OpenVPN certificates, know the dual OpenVPN passwords, and know the proper user ID, you can’t get into the home network from a remote location. Much safer than traditional remote desktop.

I also use two pfSense packages, Snort and pfBlockerNG, to stop threats and some ad servers cold at the router level. Both are free but I’m using the $30/year Snort upgrade. The free one uses 30 day old signatures. Companies pay hundreds of dollars a year for the same Snort signatures that ordinary households get for $30. To the bad, it took a few annoying weeks to filter out all the false positives they generated.

I tried and am about to remove powerline for the upstairs. It’s too unreliable. It gradually went from amazingly good to bad and I nearly tossed out a laptop it was tied to because I thought the laptop was going bad. After dinking around with the powerline adapters for a couple of hours, I figured out how to get them fast again. They’re going into the ‘spare junk’ box for unspecified future use. I’m replacing powerline with a wireless bridge, using my R6300V1 refurb.

worked perfectly… bought the refurb AC1450 from amazon today and followed the instructions… worked absolutely fine… the device came with AC1450 V1.0.0.22_1.0.10 firmware and now has R6300v2-V1.0.3.30_10.0.73 firmware after the update. Thank you for the instructions.. helped a lot..
Learning for me today “power cycle” = “turn off and on again” 😀

I have an 2014 Costco Unit too. I tried all the instructions and after multiple attempts got it to work. Here is what worked for me:

1. I had to downgrade AC1450 to 1.0.0.6_1.0.3 first (otherwise error “Bind Failed 10013”)
2. I had to disconnect the ROUTER from the INTERNET and powercycle.
This was the key for me, as I had tried the both old telnetenable.exe the new telnetenable.exe, tried my admin username/password, Gearguy/Geardog and every combination of the 4 including multiple power cycles. The firmware downgrade simply got me a blank prompt unable running telnet.
2. Ultimately, I used the “old” telnetEnable.exe (md5 hash A2120AC7A2C676B1214DEB6056A20AD4) with the Grearguy/GearDog Password after di
connecting the WAN cable and a fresh power-cycle
3. The rest of the procedure went flawlessly.

Thanks to your post Carl, I purchased (and upgraded to R6300v2) 2x AC1450’s back in 2014. They’ve been working [mostly] fine since then. Today, both are running with Netgear’s latest firmware revs – V1.0.3.30_10.0.73.

I resisted the temptation to run DD-WRT on them just because, from reading the experience of others, it did not seem like plain sailing. And, for the most part, I’ve enjoyed great throughput at 5GHZ on them running the Netgear stock FW. My gripe with the stock FW is that the HTTP GUI tends to no longer work after 7-15 days of operation without a power cycle. Often, within a few days after the GUI stops responding the entire router will bind (smacks of memory leaking). This becomes a big issue when trying to manage remotely (when I cannot power cycle the router).

A solution to this would be to connect via ssh/telnet and perform a reboot from the CLI. However, I’m unable to. Both my R6300v2’s refuse connections. During the initial transformation from AC1450 to AC1750, telnetenable worked flawlessly and made possible the telnet connection to the router. But since updating to, and running with, the latest FW – telnet seems to be shutdown. All attempts at re-instating via the latest version of telnetenable (including via UDP port 23) do not seem to work.

Anybody encountered this? Or have other suggestions on how to successfully connect to to a router that has stopped responding via GUI?

I’m always looking for more speed but, as for most, budget limits my progress. This looks like a great to save a little and gain some speed. Don’t mean to hijack the thread but, B4 I jump with both feet, I have some questions.

1- Has anyone had any problems with wireless scanner/printer connections with this AC1450/AC1750 setup? I presently am running a R6050 and having some Wireless printer/scanner comm issues. It appears to be blocking mDNS responses to my Vuescan software which prevents it from finding the scanner. (works fine on another brand (Single Band) router in same network configuration.) All printer functions work fine. Netgear Support has not given any solutions after 2 weeks of back and forth. I’m concerned that this may be a netgear router problem across all routers.

2- How can I insure that I’m getting an AC1450 that I can use this process with? I have no Costco in my area so I’m looking on-line (i.e. Ebay)

Even though I wrote the article and bought two, one of which was returned because it had defective wireless, I would say “Consider skipping this one unless you feel adventurous.” Reports from readers in the comments suggest the router was changed and the conversion process may have changed as a result. Routers, as a rule, don’t single out who will and who won’t succeed with DNS, so your other problem is possibly something else. There’s a fairly good selection of other 1750 class routers available at lowish cost used or as refurbs now. This class of routers was very expensive over a year ago when I wrote about it. If you feel adventurous, have one sitting around and it doesn’t work well, or find one for really cheap, give it a go. Otherwise, think about it.

Thanks Carl… After looking around, as you suggested, I have found that there are AC1750’s out there at equal or lower prices as AC1450’s. So I’ll most likely take your advice and skip the upgrade process. I was hoping someone out there had a similar wireless printer/scanner configuration that could confirm that it worked using the Netgear router. Since my setup works fine with another brand router (slower and single band) it sure seems that its the Netgear that’s disrupting the scanner communication back to the software. Vuescan log file shows that the software is not getting a reply from it’s multicast query for the scanner. But with all same software, antivirus, and firewall settings with a Belkin router, the reply from the scanner is there so it all works fine. Maybe I’ll just look at other brands for a faster AC1750 (pretty much my price range limit) solution.

Ref my Feb 11 post… UPDATE… After a month of back and forth and over 50 messages, Netgear Tech finally admit they have a problem and have sent me a “TEST” firmware load to play with. It fixes most of the wireless scanner com issue but there’s still a couple more bugs to work out.

In the mean time, I got my hands on a used R6300v2 with ISP specific firmware loaded and non-oem boardid. Using your guideline to upgrade the AC1450, I’ve been able to reconfigure this router back to original boardid and latest Netgear firmware.

I have a few other little changes I’d like to make to nvram settings and need a list of netgear console commands (ie, burnboardid, router version, etc.) to use in telnet session. So far, i’ve been unable to find a source for a consolidate list in one place.

I think you just redefined the word ‘persistence’. Most, if not all, routers are just little linux or bsd boxes. Perhaps there’s a linux feature that can be used to explore the router’s insides. YouTube has a video for everything. It’s amazing how much you can learn from it. Maybe someone has been where you are now. Google ‘telnet commands’?

I didn’t break it. This website is my hobby, not my life. To be blunt, I haven’t even looked into it and I don’t plan to.

It was cool making a router that performed questionably work well after applying a little hack. This happened a couple of years ago. Since then, comments here imply Netgear has changed things and this article may or may not apply anymore. At the time I wrote it, 1750 class ac routers were few and expensive. Buying a cheap refurb and making it work better was a fantastic idea. Now, 1750 class and better ac routers are common and inexpensive.

If you are stuck with a poorly performing AC1450 Netgear router, you have my sympathy. I don’t know why companies sell merchandise that gets weak reviews. You would think they would appreciate an article such as this making old stock useful as they run inventory down. Netgear supports myopenrouter.com, which is a site dedicated to alternate firmware on some Netgear routers … why not take a look and see if you can get better results using firmware from there.

It’s also possible your router is broken. I purchased a 2nd AC1450 and returned it because 5GHz wireless was damaged and barely worked at 300 mbits. The original hack worked well for me on my first AC1450, and apparently well for lots of others. Sorry, can’t help with your specific problem. Did you contact Netgear? It’s their router, after all, and their firmware upgrade.

Hi Carl! Thanks for your reply! I was replying asking user Chait if he got the latest update to work. His original message is on top of mine. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Should have written something more than just a question. 🙂 Sorry.

Chait comment was:

I have updated to the latest firmware R6300v2-V1.0.4.2_10.0.74 and I am getting the following msg:
No Ethernet Cable Is Plugged into the Router Internet Port
I tried downgrading to my previous version but no luck. Any suggestions.. Tried all sorts of resetting.

Like earlier posts I could enable telnet mode, but no prompt or characters seen.

“I too had the same problem with telnet on a unit I just bought a refurb AC1450 on Amazon. It would connect and no prompt at all. I tried both old and new telnetenable programs with all different kinds of passwords. I also was using a Windows 7 64bit system, but I tried the built in windows telnet and putty. Both had the same results, connected, but no prompt.

I also downgraded the firmware to 1.0.0.6 with no change in the telnet results.

Figuring I had nothing to loose and maybe something changed in the firmware’s, I loaded the newest AC1450 firmware 1.0.0.34 and BAM! I see what I should at the telnet prompt and I was able to change the board ID and install the R6300v2 firmware with no issue.

I did exactly the same as you. Updated the AC1450 firmware to 1.0.0.34, Telnet using the modified/updated telnetenable, and then installed the R6300v2 1.0.3.30 firmware easily.

I had previously been using the AC1450 with Kong’s DD-WRT, but I found that there were a lot of issues with basic connectivity, particularly with things like Chromecast and my LG G4. But after going back to a stock Netgear firmware, the throughput and connectivity issues are far better. Despite the lack of features/customization.

I’m still running one of these from 2014. I just updated it yesterday to the latest firmware and wanted to advise that the latest (I think it was issued last month) has the new FCC ‘fix’ to prevent loading 3rd party firmware. So if you’re going to switch from stock to dd-wrt, do it before that firmware applies.

I got it for $65 as a refurb direct from Costco. The interesting part is that I know the history behind the odd 1450 that was really an r6300v2.

Costco wanted to sell a $99 router in at least the ac1200 range and asked the major suppliers to offer them something. Netgear didn’t have anything in the area product wise and it’d have cost them a bunch of $$$ to design something from scratch. So they took the R6300v2 hardware and hobbled some of the features and the 5GHz throughput to make the 1450. Unfortunately the quick and dirty firmware hobbling job didn’t work out very well and there were a lot of weird problems with the router, resulting in a lot of returns and refurbished units. Netgear did eventually fix the disconnect problems in the 1450, but the 6300v2 stock firmware has been working like a champ for years now.

For a compact unit with no external antennae, it provides surprisingly good coverage and signal level. Its dropped to #9 on smallnetbuilders ac1750 router charts as newer models have improved range and throughput, but for a $65 purchase 2 years ago it was a steal.

I bought an AC1450 of ebay $24 and it arrived with 1.0.8 firmware I was able to telnet enable this without drama and flash it with R6300v2 1.0.3.30 – I opted not to use the latest 1.0.4.2 firmware due to the comment on NetGears site ““New WiFi driver to comply with FCC 5G new rule“. Thanks for heads up about this change. The entire process was painless and only took about 15min. Cheers.

I did this upgrade a couple of years ago, and it went swimmingly! Last week I tried to add a guest account, and now it’s sinking. Although it’s still functioning as a router, I can no longer access the router’s website, can’t administer it, and the power light remains a solid amber. So next step would appear to be a factory reset.

Question: where will a factory reset take me back to: original AC1450 configuration, or the AC1750 configuration?

Don’t really want to experiment, as I can live with it as is, but would like to get that guest account working.

Anyone notice that the AC1750 price has come down to where the AC1450’s were when we all decided to do this? :o)

I no longer own my converted AC1450. I gave it to a relative who is using it an an access point.

But, I reset my converted AC1450 router many times and it remained converted.

That being said, for some inexplicable reason, Netgear changed a lot. Firmware conversions to the AC1750 became more difficult. Sometimes impossible if the owner wasn’t persistent.

I would assume a press of the reset button is still safe. I would also assume that it will reset your router to whatever it was when you pressed the reset button, only ready to start over. But, machines are what they are and Netgear decided to make things complicated. I would consider it to be a low risk proposition to press the reset button.

Re the price: yes, they have dropped. Long ago, converting the AC1450 was a work around to improve things for a little money. Today, it’s a new situation entirely.

Admission: I’m using mine as an access point too — connected via powerline to my old Linksys, which hosts my firewall and DHCP server. If it was my primary router, it’d be a _much_ higher priority! ;o)